Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

This blog will pay for itself.

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

People are weird.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The revolution will be supervised.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

No one could have predicted…

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Qualified Good News Open Thread: A Court Win for NIH Grant Funding

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“Qualified” good news in that there will be appeals, of course, but still, this is hopeful. From Reuters, with bold text by me:

BOSTON, June 16 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Boston on Monday said the termination of National Institutes of Health grants for research on diversity-related topics by President Donald Trump‘s administration was “void and illegal,” and accused the government of discriminating against racial minorities and LGBT people.
U.S. District Judge William Young during a non-jury trial said the NIH violated federal law by arbitrarily canceling more than $1 billion in research grants because of their perceived connection to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Young said he was reinstating grants that had been awarded to organizations and Democratic-led states that sued over the terminations. And the judge indicated that as the case proceeds he could issue a more sweeping decision.
“This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” said Young, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan. “Any discrimination by our government is so wrong that it requires the court to enjoin it and at an appropriate time, I’m going to do it.”
Referring to the termination of grants for research related to issues involving racial minorities, the judge said he had in four decades on the bench “never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable.”
“You are bearing down on people of color because of their color,” the judge said, referring to Trump’s administration. “The Constitution will not permit that.”
I’m glad they keep losing in court. If you’ve forgotten what’s at stake here — it’s impossible to keep up with the lawlessness and the lawsuits — ProPublica put together a long story last week talking to the scientists impacted by NIH grant cuts. Some of these research projects are done for even if the funding eventually gets restored, because they involve perishable samples or other time-limited factors, like, you know, active clinical trials involving cancer patients. But hopefully some can be saved.
Open thread.
(Also, hello, I am back from the Podcast Hole. Thanks to everyone who protested over the weekend.)

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Monday Evening Open Sportsball Thread

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FIFA Club World Cup ticket sales tank dramatically after the Dept. of Homeland Security bragged that agents would be “suited and booted" at the stadium in a now-deleted social media post

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— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 6:31 PM

As ever, I know very little about the soccer world. But I have heard enough about FIFA’s general corruption to suspect that the Trump admistration’s ‘suited and booted’ proclamations may be something of a figleaf for the global org’s marketing failures. Still… per HuffPost:

… Sales for the FIFA Club World Cup, a series of precursor games ahead of next year’s North American World Cup, were already lackluster when, last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection bragged online about how its agents would be “suited and booted and ready to provide security for the first round of games.”

At about the same time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement told NBC Miami they’d also be at the games providing security, and told the outlet that all non-American citizens should carry proof of their legal status.

CBP spokesperson Alan Regalado told the Miami New Times in a statement that “lawful travelers have nothing to fear from these measures.”…

Tickets to the first match, featuring soccer legend Lionel Messi’s Miami CF vs. Egypt’s Al Ahly FC at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami hit, well, rock bottom.

According to prices tracked by The Athletic, tickets that sold for $349 and up after the matches were announced in December dropped to $69.15 ahead of the Saturday night game, with tens of thousands of tickets still unsold.

The sports outlet also found a deal marketed to local college students where five tickets could be had for $20, dropping the cost per ticket to just $4.

Sources familiar with CBP’s “suited and booted” post told The New York Times it was deleted after senior FIFA personnel told the federal law enforcement agency they weren’t exactly thrilled about it.

The post nevertheless struck a nerve, with costly reverberations around the country…

The Associated Press reported last week that “Fans don’t appear to be snatching up tickets to the Club World Cup”:

If slashed ticket prices, closed stadium sections and moved seats are any indication, fans aren’t exactly clamoring to attend the Club World Cup.

The tournament opens Saturday with Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami facing Al Ahly at Florida’s Hard Rock Stadium. Thirty-two teams are taking part in the newly expanded tournament that will be played across 11 U.S. cities. The final is set for July 13 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

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War for Ukraine Day 1,208: Another Long Night of Russian Drones & Missiles

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

I’m absolutely fried, so I’m just going to run through the basics tonight.

World history is largely a long list of military solutions.

Politicians who say there is “no military solution” to an active conflict are in most cases trying to excuse their inaction.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 5:19 AM

War is politics with other means.

The FIS of Ukraine has reported that Russia is preparing a large-scale information campaign amid ongoing prisoner exchanges.

Putin personally initiated the campaign and is being coordinated by propagandists who will spread manipulative content. The peak of the campaign is expected around June 20.

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 5:43 AM

Air raid alerts for Russian drone swarms and missiles went up over all of Ukraine sometime between 3:00 and 3:30 AM local time in Ukraine/8:00 and 8:30 PM EDT. The air raid alert maps indicate MiG 31Ks, those are the ones that carry the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, are up over western Russia and the western Black Sea.

Russian missiles are already in Ukraine’s skies. Air raid alert across the entire country.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 8:12 PM

❗️Right now, Kyiv is under massive russian drone attack!

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 6:22 PM

Kyiv right now ‼️ Ukraine is under russian drone attack.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 6:00 PM

The cost:

The girl danced her prom waltz clutching her fallen father’s uniform. 💔

My people don’t deserve to endure all these horrors.

Inaction is complicity.

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 4:46 PM

This is what three years in russian captivity does to a Ukrainian soldier.
Not a prison — a concentration camp by another name. A machine of humiliation, starvation, and cruelty. Russia didn’t invent this, it inherited it.
This is Gulag 2.0.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 6:24 AM

There is no daily address from President Zelenskyy today because he and First Lady Zelenska traveled to Vienna today.

He did a joint press conference with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen:

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Soprano2 – No Kings – Springfield, MO

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I didn’t make a sign, I got one from a nice young couple. It said “Protect Democracy” and had upside down flags taped to it. There were a lot of people there.

More of the crowd. It was a good day. When you live in a conservative area, it’s nice to see you aren’t alone. There was lots of honking and only one truck flying Trump flags showed up.

This is the funniest sign I saw.

This guy was everywhere, I got a great picture of him at the 417 sign.

This woman was next to me. She was an older lady – there were a lot of older white people there. 

I tried to get a good picture of this guy’s donkey, but this was the best I could do.

Soprano2 – No Kings – Springfield, MOPost + Comments (20)

Monday Afternoon Open Thread: Not Popular

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As Republican senators consider President Donald Trump’s big bill that could slash federal spending and extend tax cuts, a new survey shows most U.S. adults don’t think the government is overspending on the programs the GOP has focused on cutting, like Medicaid and food stamps.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) June 16, 2025 at 11:18 AM

… Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing levels of funding for popular safety net programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. They’re more divided on spending around the military and border security, and most think the government is spending too much on foreign aid.

The poll points to a disconnect between Republicans’ policy agenda and public sentiment around the domestic programs that are up for debate in the coming weeks…

Voters, when questioned, don’t actually approve of the GOP’s Big Ugly Bill. It would be to the Repubs’ advantage if their Very Serious Media cronies could keep all eyes focused on the usual summertime trivia, but Don TACO must have all the attention at all times, and we Democrats need to leverage this to highlight the truth.

Our June Strength In Numbers/@verasight.bsky.social poll:
– Trump approval 42/56. Underwater on 10/11 issues.
– Dems +8 in House
– 62% are worried about presidential conflicts of interest
– LA, deportations lead news recall
+ more on messaging & Abundance
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-appr…

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— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) June 16, 2025 at 8:05 AM


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In our new Strength In Numbers/@verasight.bsky.social poll, we asked people to tell us what they had read or seen on the news over the last month.
We fielded from June 6-12. Responses were overwhelmingly about Trump, deportations, LA, Musk, and tariffs. All bad issues for the White House.

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— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) June 16, 2025 at 9:20 AM

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Score One for E. Jean Carroll

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E. Jean Carroll has a belated birthday gift for TACO Don.  Happy Birthday, TACO Don!

Even better than besting TACO Don with the book (surprise!) is the fact that both the verdict and the award were upheld by a Federal Court on Friday.  Maybe you guys talked about that here, but if you did, I missed it.

Gotta love the AP headline:

Appeals court won’t reconsider ruling that Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $5M in sex abuse case

Open thread.

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The Coming Assault On Our Cities

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In a post last week, we discussed a recent Anne Applebaum column on revolutionary logic. In her piece in The Atlantic, Applebaum observes that sputtering revolutionary regimes tend to escalate violence to consolidate power. She cites the depredations of the faltering Bolshevik and Maoist regimes as historical precedents, linking them to the flailing Trump regime’s violent assault on Los Angeles.

Now Trump faces the same choice as his revolutionary predecessors: Give up—or radicalize. Find compromises—or polarize society further. Slow down—or use violence. Like his revolutionary predecessors, Trump has chosen radicalization and polarization, and he is openly seeking to provoke violence.

The regime seeks to appease its base by carrying out Trump’s mass deportation threats, but it’s coming up against the hard fact that the economy depends on immigrant labor. Last week, Trump announced policy “changes” at DHS: (WSJ)

The Trump administration said it has directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, stressing that sweeps should focus on people in the U.S. illegally who have criminal backgrounds.

The new guidance by the Department of Homeland Security comes after raids in Los Angeles sparked protests in the city that have spread across the country and led to the Trump administration sending in the National Guard and Marines.

“We will follow the President’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,” said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.

At first, I figured this announcement of a partial walk-back was a lie to placate worried business interests, and immigration raids at worksites would continue. Immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S. citizens, so if the regime truly focused on “the worst of the worst,” deportations would drop to Obama and Biden-era levels, and that would constitute a de-escalation.

But last night, after marinating in the humiliation of his flop of a birthday parade contrasted with the millions of Americans who turned out Saturday to oppose his authoritarian power grab, Trump issued a preview of coming horrors in a truly insane and spittle-flecked Truth Social post.

Our Nation’s ICE Officers have shown incredible strength, determination, and courage as they facilitate a very important mission, the largest Mass Deportation Operation of Illegal Aliens in History. Every day, the Brave Men and Women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment, and even threats from Radical Democrat Politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our Mandate to the American People. ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.

In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports — And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role. You don’t hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!

I want our Brave ICE Officers to know that REAL Americans are cheering you on every day. The American People want our Cities, Schools, and Communities to be SAFE and FREE from Illegal Alien Crime, Conflict, and Chaos. That’s why I have directed my entire Administration to put every resource possible behind this effort, and reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia. Our Federal Government will continue to be focused on the REMIGRATION of Aliens to the places from where they came, and preventing the admission of ANYONE who undermines the domestic tranquility of the United States.

To ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, the Patriots at Pentagon and the State Department, you have my unwavering support. Now go, GET THE JOB DONE! DJT

This is, of course, fucking nuts. All of it. And keep in mind the context in which Trump issued this authoritarian decree: One of his supporters was then still at large after assassinating Democrats in the state governed by the Democrat who was the VP nominee last year.

So, it appears this is the form the escalation will take: an all-out assault on our cities carried out by federal law enforcement and probably the U.S. military. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

Open thread.

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